Just got back from hunting with Randy Horne and Bar H Outfitters. Randy is Mark Horne's brother(of Hornes Archery). We were just outside of Meeker Colorado hunting the last week of archery season. Mark came up to guide as he and Randy are good buddies of mine. The trip could not have been better. I was using my Horne Recurve with CE 250's topped with Stos broadheads. The bow I chose for the trip is 58 lbs at my draw length. I have little experience with posting pictures so I'll keep this short to make sure that the photo will transfer. (http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd52/pliberato/138.jpg)
Well the picture turned out a little bigger than I had hoped but hopefully I'm not breaking any rules.
We began every day at around 4:30 a.m. and were usually not back to camp until close to 9 or 10 p.m. We rode horses to our chosen hunting area for the day, tied them up and started working our way through the aspens and dark timber. Both Mark and Randy are excellent callers and we spent most of our time calling and looking for bugling bulls. I had a buddy with me shooting wheels and he and I switched between having Mark and Randy as our guides. The weather was nice; I would have liked to have a few more clouds to keep the elk up longer but we had little rain and the mornings were usually frosted and clear. The country there is beautiful this time of year as the trees are turning. I normally hunt elk earlier in the season and I have never seen the mountains with this type of color. Truly incredible and a great way to watch the sun come up, horseback and listening to bugling elk in the Colorado mountains. I cannot imagine anything finer.
I had a couple of opportunities in the first few days but either the wind or some kind of bad luck kept me from arrowing a bull. Last Wednesday (day 4), Mark called in a nice 4x4 that walked right by me at 6 yards. When I started my draw he bolted and I picked a spot and shot. Unfortunately, my spot was the 700 lb bull and the arrow was a solid paunch hit. The bull ran out to 45 yards and stopped to look back. I already had a arrow on the string and took a second shot which took him clean in the right ham up to the fletching. Both Mark and I felt that the combination of the two hits would be lethal and the tracking job probabably fairly simple. After a two hour wait, we took up the trail. I have hunted with Mark on many occasions and he is an excellent tracker. I would say that I'm fair. We spent the next two days looking for the bull and came up with about 4 drops of blood in total. I would say distraught pretty much summed up my mood after we had to give up the search. (http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd52/pliberato/114.jpg)
Well the story ended well and I got another shot on Friday. This time with Randy. He called in a nice 5x5 and I put one through his chest. He only went about 70 yards before he piled up. Truly a great trip with great guys. The Hornes are the best. (http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd52/pliberato/126.jpg) one of the best hunts I've been on.
Congrats on the bull and the hunt. Im a horne guy too so its nice to see one laying over a great kill.
Dan
Congrats on the bull......I used to own a Horne longbow...real nice but I had to drop down in draw weight so I sold it...sure miss the thing
That's awesome Pablo! Now lets go to Columbus, TX and shoot some deer and pigs!
Bonner
Congrats on the fine elk! Sorry to hear about the first one.
Great stuff! Congrats and thanks for sharing! :thumbsup: :clapper:
Hunting elk is definitely one of my dreams! ;)
Fantastic! Well-done!
Thanks....I can say that I enjoy all of trips I've been on, but there is just something special about elk. On the horses back to camp we would be riding the rims of canyons and hear the bulls bugling down below. It sends chills down your spine.
Congrats :thumbsup: